Another attempt to eliminate dairy biomethane production of under the state Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program has been introduced in the California Legislature. AB 2870 by Assembly Member Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) is similar to SB 709 introduced last year by Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) that was defeated in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 2870 prohibits the California Air Resources Board (CARB) from including avoided methane emissions in the calculation of carbon intensity (CI) for purposes of CARB’s evaluation or re-evaluation of fuel pathways. It also prohibits a fuel pathway holder from including avoided methane emissions in its annual Fuel Pathway Report. “Avoided Methane Emissions” is defined under the measure as “any captured methane from livestock manure management.”
Assembly Member Muratsuchi was one of ten California legislators that wrote to CARB Chair Liane Randolph last Fall criticizing incentives that make projects capturing dairy/livestock methane emissions possible. In response, Chair Randolph informed the Legislators of the rigor behind dairy biomethane pathway certifications, affirming that the “LCFS uses a conservative, scientifically-robust life-cycle assessment to determine the environmental benefits of dairy biomethane.” Further, she confirmed that “without the biomethane capture projects supported by the LCFS, dairies would continue to emit significant amounts of methane from their manure operations. This would jeopardize attaining California’s legal mandate [under SB 1383 – Chapter 395, Statutes of 2016] to achieve 40 percent reduction in statewide methane emissions by 2030. More importantly, without methane abatement, California would continue to release a powerful climate forcer into the atmosphere, further exacerbating the dangerous levels of climate change the planet is currently facing.”
AB 2870 would derail the state’s progress in meeting these mandated methane abatement goals, which is why CRTA is opposed to the bill. It also heightens the level of uncertainty in the marketplace thus threatening current and future investments in low-carbon fuel production.
The bill is scheduled to be heard by the Assembly Natural Resources Committee later this month. Stay tuned for updates.